This invention relates to a conveyance system and, more particularly, to a simple, lightweight conveyance system for assisting pedestrians.
Known conveyance systems generally have a substantial disadvantage in that the conveying vehicle and its support and guiding structures require substantial material and labor to manufacture, maintain and operate. So called lightrail systems as used in subways, for example, require a special road bed, trackage, and cars which are substantially more massive than the people they convey. Such systems have become so costly in material and labor that there is substantial speculation that further systems of this type can no longer be built economically. Alternative automobile, bus and truck conveyance systems require costly roads, energy sources in which pollution is difficult or impossible to control, the services of a driver, at least at present, and complex controls in the alternative, and also use vehicles which are much more massive than their loads. The mere mass of these vehicles produces environmentally undesirable vibration and rumble when the systems are operated. These conveyance systems therefore have a substantial environmental impact both in providing the materials required and in operation.
When the costs of such known systems in both an economic and environmental sense are considered, these known conveyance systems are seen to be impractical to transport relatively small loads such as pedestrians and parcels. The relative excess of the system in materials and costs as compared to the load to be conveyed in such known systems can thus be referred to as hardware overkill.